Welcome

Darmiyan is a literature platform hosted by Shakti Shalini, an NGO supporting gender equality, individual choice and dignity since 1987. Shakti Shalini supports survivors of gender/sexual violence and works within communities to prevent the violence.

Darmiyan hosts the life narratives of individuals who have endured, resisted, fought and survived various forms of violence and found support through Shakti Shalini. It is an attempt to acknowledge and take cognisance of their struggle and their strength. Darmiyan is also an attempt to bring to the forefront a form of violence that is far too normalised, accepted and comfortably weaved into the everyday with the hope of facilitating awareness, critique and change. In addition to life narratives, Darmiyan also welcomes essays, short stories, poetry and other forms of literature that may contribute towards facilitating awareness regarding gender violence and discrimination.

Darmiyan is written by a team of voluntary writers. It is a multi-lingual blog. Literature in any language is welcomed.

What is “choice”? What is “resistance”? These are not simple questions. Most incidents of gender violence are not black and white. Roshni’s story highlights one of the more nuanced aspects of gender violence, and the dilemma of reaching conclusions and resolutions.

Darmiyan Meaning

Darmiyan is an urdu word which means “in-between” in English. Many of our clients grapple with an experience of inhabiting the “in-between”, the interstitial, that evades categories, blocks, definitions and language itself; negotiating a space between home and homelessness, love and violence, right and wrong, self erasure and rebuilding, the challenge of our writers is to capture the ephemeral slippage central to the experience of violence, trauma, memory and reconstruction.